A bag full of money lands in front of you. Is it luck? The answer to your prayers? Part of a predetermined plan? Or all of the above? Set in the chaotic streets of Istanbul, 40 is a story of three strangers making their way in a city of 12 million, all searching…for one bag. Shot entirely on location, ‘40’ combines intense story telling with documentary style cinematography embarking on a synchronistic journey dealing with faith, love, luck, destiny, human trafficking…and a bag of cash that falls from the sky.

Metin (Ali Atay), a 30 year old kid from an Eastern Anatolian village fled a horrific home life for the promise of “more” in the city. To survive, he uses his cab as a front to deliver drugs to Istanbul’s elite. But like a bad Turkish film, he believes his life is cursed. No matter how hard he tries to change his luck, things always seem to go from bad to worse.

Godwill (Ntare Mwine), a naïve Nigerian immigrant, is a man of miracles. His birth was deemed the will of God by the village elders and this faith guides him and colors his view. It eventually leads him to human traffickers who promise to take him to Paris where he plans on proposing to his one true love. Instead… he winds up in Istanbul, one of the thousands of illegal Africans, using the city as a launching pad to Europe. For four years, he’s lived amongst the Kurdish gangs, drug dealers and transvestites in Tarlabasi, one of the worst slums of Istanbul. He works day and night saving every penny to pay for his illegal passage to Europe. When his savings is stolen just one day from his departure date…his God seems to send a sign.

Sevda (Deniz Cakir), a middle class Istanbullite can’t seem to find her place. She’s dabbled in Buddhism, Christianity, Islam, and now she’s using the science of numerology to chart her course. A nurse by trade, she dreams of breaking free of the self imposed monotony of her life for the sake of her young daughter, Pinar. Numbers appear to have led her astray when they directed her to her husband, Ali, but on one seemingly normal November day their power couldn’t be more clear…
40 revolves around the bizarre events that unfold during one strange and stormy week in November. Metin, Godwill and Sevda are just 3 people in a city of 12 million – yet, like a magnetic force, something more powerful has taken hold, inextricably linking their fates and causing us to question the sacrosanctity of numbers, faith, destiny and just plain luck.